U.S. News & World Report released its 2014 Best High School rankings, and 4 Fairfield County schools made the top 10 in Connecticut. In all, 19,411 public high schools were reviewed and 44 Connecticut schools made the rankings.

The top school in CT according to this ranking is Academy of Aerospace and Engineering in Hartford. The school also came in at number 15 in the U.S. rankings.

Weston comes in at number 3 in Connecticut, Wilton is 6, and Ridgefield and Staples came in at numbers 8 and 9.

The title of number one school in the country was given to School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas, Texas.

According to U.S. News & World Report, Connecticut has 17 gold medal schools, 20 silver medal schools and seven bronze medal schools. In order to be eligible for a state ranking, a school must be awarded a national gold or silver medal.

The site explains that "a three-step process determined the Best High Schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all of their students well, using performance on state proficiency tests as the benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work."

- Step 1 determined whether each school's students were performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state.

- Step 2 determined whether the school's least-advantaged students were performing better than average for similar students in the state.

- Step 3 judged college-readiness performance using Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data as the benchmarks for success.